This invention relates to a sound synthesis technology, and particularly, relates to a sound synthesis apparatus and a sound synthesis method suitable for sound synthesis performed in real time.
In recent years, vocal performances have come to be performed by using a sound synthesis apparatus (singing voice synthesis apparatus) at live performances, and a sound synthesis apparatus capable of real-time sound synthesis is demanded. To fulfill such a demand, JP-A-2008-170592 proposes a sound synthesis apparatus having a structure in which lyric data is successively read from a memory while melody data generated by the user through a keyboard operation or the like is received, and sound synthesis is performed. Moreover, JP-A-2012-83569 proposes a sound synthesis apparatus in which melody data is stored in a memory and a singing sound along the melody represented by the melody data is synthesized according to an operation to designate phonograms constituting the lyric.
With the above-described conventional sound synthesis apparatus, at the time of singing synthesis, either the lyric or the melody is necessarily stored in a memory previously and it is therefore difficult to perform sound synthesis while changing both the lyric and the melody extemporaneously. Accordingly, a sound synthesis apparatus has recently been proposed that performs real-time synthesis of a synthetic singing voice corresponding to the designated phonograms and having the designated pitch by designating the vowel and a consonant of the phonogram constituting the lyric by a key manipulation with the left hand while designating pitch by a keyboard operation with the right hand. With this sound synthesis apparatus, since the input of the lyric with the left hand and the designation of the pitch with the right hand can be independently performed in parallel, it is possible that an arbitrary lyric is sung to an arbitrary melody. However, since it is a busy manipulation to input the vowels and consonants of the lyric one by one by the manipulation with the left hand while playing the melody with the right hand, without considerable proficiency, it is difficult to perform a vocal performance rich in extemporaneousness.